92 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [ Homocidus 


with the trochanters and anterior femora internally testaceous, all the 
tibiae and front tarsi dull red. Length, 4—54 mm. 
Rendered very distinct by its deeply impressed notauli, black femora 
and scutellum, and by its slender and dull body. 
Like the preceding, there appear to be two broods of this species, and 
it is not at all surprising that this should be so when we consider that 
Bignell has proved, under BZ. aefasorius, ante, that these insects spend the 
winter in their quiescent state in the body of their host. Naturally these 
may be expected to emerge with the first genial warmth of spring, unless 
retarded by the instinct that the Syrphid larvae must have attained a cer- 
tain size before becoming fit hosts for their progeny. This at once ex- 
plains the emergence of some species not taking place before June, but 
hardly that of others, like the present, being abroad so much earlier; the 
later brood or broods come from the full-fed Syrphid larvae of their 
present year. 
This species is by no means rare with us, though for long little under- 
stood and called 2. gracu/us, Grav., which title Pfankuch has disproved. 
It is found somewhat frequently in marshy places throughout the last 
half of May, I have rarely taken it in June, and but once in July; it is 
commonest in August, but does not extend into September. Its dis- 
tribution appears restricted to Silesia, France, and Sweden ; and we have 
no intimation yet of its economy. It has occurred at Lands End to Mar- 
quand, at Botusfleming in Cornwall, Nunton in Wilts, and Bishops 
Teignton to Marshall, Earlham and Buckenham Ferry in the Norfolk 
Broads to Bridgman, Bickleigh, Bovisand and Maker in Devon to Bignell, 
Redland in May to Charbonnier, the New Forest in June to Brunetti, 
Worksop to Houghton, Hastings to Rev. E. N. Bloomfield, Shere com- 
monly to Capron, Botusfleming in Cornwall to Marshall, Chatham to 
de la Garde, and at St. Kilda a g was captured by Waterston in June, 
1905 (Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist. 1906, p.151). It is certainly rare about Ips- 
wich, where I have only taken it at Foxhall, when collecting with the late 
Arthur Chitty in May, 1907, and on Heracleum flower at Barham Oak 
Wood, when collecting with the late Edward Sparke in July, 1899; but in 
the north-west of Suffolk, among the Broads, it is common on Angelica 
flowers in August, and on reeds in May at Oulton, Barnby, Henstead, 
Beccles, and Tuddenham Fen. 
4. pectoratorius, Grav. 
Bassus pectoratorius, Gr. 1. E. iii. 333; Ratz. Ichn. d. Forst. iii. 116; Holmgr. 
Sv. Ak. Handl. 1855, p. 357; Voll. Pinac. pl. i, fig. 7,¢ ¢. Homoporus pectora- 
torius, Thoms. O. E. xiv. 1496; Morl. Trans. Ent. Soc. 1905, p. 426, 3 2. 
Black with the thorax and scutellum red. Head as broad as thorax ; 
mouth, clypeus, in @ the facial orbits, and in ¢ whole face and under 
side of antennae, flavous. Thorax stout and gibbous; mesonotum with 
the exception of a central apical mark, or only two basal dots, bright red ; 
lines before, and often beneath, the concolorous tegulae flavous ; pleurae 
and sternum red; metathorax dull and subscabriculous, with the areola 
obsolete but the petiolar area somewhat distinctly defined. Scutellum 
subconvex, red with its apex usually narrowly flavescent. Abdomen black 
and deplanate with apices of the segments sometimes very narrowly 
glaucous-white ; basal segment with no discal carinae, of ? subquadrate, 
